[Introduced January 10, 2008; referred to the Committee on
Education; and then to the Committee on Finance.]

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A BILL to amend and reenact §18A-4-10f of the Code of West
Virginia, 1931, as amended, relating to the return of personal
leave days which were donated from one school employee to
another.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §18A-4-10f of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as
amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:

ARTICLE 4. SALARIES, WAGES AND OTHER BENEFITS.

§18A-4-10f. Leave donation program.
(a) Definitions. --
For the purposes of this section and section ten of this
article, the following words have the meanings specified unless the
context clearly indicates a different meaning:(1) "Catastrophic medical emergency" means a medical or physical condition that:(A) Incapacitates an employee or an immediate family member
for whom the employee will provide care;(B) Is likely to require the prolonged absence of the employee
from duty; and(C) Will result in a substantial loss of income to the
employee because the employee:(i) Has exhausted all accrued personal leave; and(ii) Is not eligible to receive personal leave or has
exhausted personal leave available from a leave bank established
pursuant to this article;(1) "Catastrophic emergency" means:
(A) A medical or physical condition that:(i) Incapacitates an employee or an immediate family member
for whom the employee will provide care;(ii) Is likely to require the prolonged absence of the
employee from duty; and(iii) Will result in a substantial loss of income to the
employee because the employee has exhausted all accrued personal
leave and is not eligible to receive personal leave or has
exhausted personal leave available from a leave bank established
pursuant to this article; or(B) A death in the immediate family that:(i) Will require the absence of the employee for any reason
related to the death of the immediate family member, including but not limited to, grieving, making funeral arrangements and settling
financial issues; and(ii) Will result in a substantial loss of income to the
employee because the employee has exhausted all accrued personal
leave and is not eligible to receive personal leave or has
exhausted personal leave available from a leave bank established
pursuant to this article;
(2) "Employee" means a professional educator or school service
person who is employed by a county board and entitled to accrue
personal leave as a benefit of employment;
(3) "Donor employee" means a professional educator or school
service person employed by a county board who voluntarily
contributes personal leave to another designated employee; and
(4) "Receiving employee" means a professional educator or
school service person employed by a county board who receives
donated personal leave from another employee.
(b) Leave donation program. --
(1) In addition to any personal leave bank established
pursuant to this article, a county board shall establish a leave
donation program pursuant to which a donor employee may transfer
accrued personal leave to the personal leave account of another
designated employee.
(2) A county board:
(A) May not limit the number of personal leave days a donor
employee may transfer to a receiving employee who is his or her spouse;
(B) May not limit the total number of personal leave days a
receiving employee receives; and
(C) May limit the number of days a donor employee transfers to
a receiving employee who is not his or her spouse.
(c) Rule. --
(1) The county board shall adopt a rule to implement the
program.
(2) The rule shall set forth at least the following
conditions:
(A) The donor employee voluntarily agrees to the leave
transfer;
(B) The donor employee selects the employee designated to
receive the personal leave transferred; and
(C) The receiving employee requires additional personal leave
because of a catastrophic medical emergency;
(D) The donated leave may not be used to:
(i) Qualify for or add to service for any retirement system
administered by the state; or
(ii) Extend insurance coverage pursuant to section thirteen,
article sixteen, chapter five of this code;
(E) Each personal leave day contributed:
(i) Shall be deducted from the number of personal leave days
to which the donor employee is entitled by section ten of this
article;
(ii) Shall not be deducted from the number of personal leave
days without cause to which the donor employee is entitled if
sufficient general personal leave days are otherwise available to
the donor employee;
(iii) Shall be credited to the receiving employee as one full
personal leave day;
(iv) May not be credited for more or less than a full day by
calculating the value of the leave according to the hourly wage of
each employee; and
(v) May be used only for an absence due to the purpose for
which the leave was transferred. If the leave was transferred for
the purpose of allowing a receiving employee to provide care to an
immediate family member with a medical or physical condition
without substantial loss of income to the receiving employee and
the immediate family member subsequently dies due to that medical
or physical condition, using the leave for any reason related to
the death of the immediate family member is considered the same
purpose for which the leave was originally transferred. Any
transferred days remaining when the catastrophic medical emergency
ends revert back to the donor employee; and
(F) An employee may not be coerced or compelled to contribute
to a leave donation program.(d) If personal leave days are transferred from multiple
donors to a donee, any unused days shall revert to each donor in an
amount that is proportional to the number of days donated by the donor as compared with the total number of days donated by all the
donors: Provided, That if the proportional method described in this
subsection results in fractions of days reverting to the donors,
the highest number of the unused days that may be distributed as
full days shall be distributed under the proportional method and
the remaining day or days that would otherwise cause fractions of
days to revert to all donors revert to the maximum number of the
most senior school employees, based on seniority as determined
under sections seven-a and seven-b of this article, that would
allow full days to be reverted.